Egypt, which was once the breadbasket for the Roman Empire, is now one of a growing number of food basket cases. A thriving center of trade and industry centuries ago, it is now marked by unemployment and dependence on tourism. Instead of dealing with these mounting problems, the Mubarak regime has swept everything under the rug and skimmed billions from the country. No wonder the population is in revolt.

Electoral victories are sometimes built on hopes and dreams, sometimes on fear and anger, sometimes on both. Over the past 30 years progressives have often resorted to emphasizing fear of the Republicans – completely justified, in my view. President Obama’s 2008 campaign, however, showed that progressives can also win by inspiring hope.

p>After the 2010 elections, progressives need a good alternative to the Republican slogan “less taxes”. Even though less taxes will lead to an even worse economy, at least it’s an idea that indicates to its intended audience that the Republicans have an answer to the question, “how can we end the Great Recession?”

Currently, there seems to be no consensus on what a progressive candidate should stand for, particularly in terms of the economy. Reregulating the financial system, as important and difficult as it would be to achieve, will not by itself rebuild the middle class. Neither would Medicare for all, as critical as that would be, or ending our wars, or even forcing China to revalue its currency. The rot in the US economy is too great to be healed by simply stopping many of our destructive policies.

Residents of New York City contribute less than 30% of the greenhouse gases of the average American, according to David Owen in his book, "Green Metropolis". Therefore, if everybody lived in a New York City, U.S. greenhouse gas emissions would plummet by 70%. This is because the way we place buildings in relation to each other has a profound influence on the way we use energy.

When it comes to talking about carbon-free technologies that can be used to generate electricity, the public seems familiar with many of the alternatives – wind, photovoltaics, concentrated solar power, and geothermal. But when it comes to transportation, we run into a cultural and political blind spot. As the old saying goes, “Be here now”, and in transportation, when it comes to electric vehicles, “being here now” means thinking about trains. Despite the existence of this dynamic, increasingly high-tech alternative, we hear a lot of wishful thinking about how to rid ourselves of oil.

Now we know that the Federal Government can cough up big bucks if it wants to. The money spigots turned on, big time, when the financial companies needed it. Now it’s time for 90% of the population to get bailed out, with a bigger, second Federal stimulus package.

We can revive the economy for the rest of us by rebuilding manufacturing; we can rebuild manufacturing by reconstructing the physical infrastructure – the transit, roads, bridges, water mains, electrical systems, schools and other structures that make civilization possible
.

The economy is a mess. Millions are losing their jobs, homes, and
health insurance. The manufacturing economy, without which a country
cannot be wealthy, is declining. The price of oil will keep rising,
global warming is getting worse, and our agricultural lands, forests,
and oceans are being destroyed. We need the government to spend
trillions of dollars, over a 10 to 20 year period, for each of the
following projects, each of which will create millions of well-paying,

Jonathan M. Feldman's article, "From Mass Transit to New Manufacturing," has been published in the April 2009 special "green jobs" issue of The American Prospect. The article explains how a new industrial-policy initiative for domestic production of mass transit products could help the United States overcome multiple economic challenges. It could provide high-wage jobs, generate tax revenue, expand exports, and reduce trade deficits. This mass-transit-production strat

Take mass transit. The Obama stimulus would designate a chunk of money for the upgrading or expansion of mass transit systems, in part through the purchase of new subway and light rail cars. No American manufacturer makes these cars, although three foreign companies assemble them at plants in the United States, mainly from components manufactured abroad, according to Jonathan M. Feldman, an American economist at Stockholm University, whose research focuses on mass transit.